Welcome to the era of wokeness.
I think we’re all pretty familiar with what ‘woke politics’ and ‘intersectionality’ constitute. But quickly (and… you can disagree!) it’s a politically leftist idea made to describe our society (specifically American society) that has intentionally been created by demographic groups with power (white, straight, wealthy, not-disabled, men) to keep power away from those without (coloured, indigenous, queer, poor, disabled, women), by creating an institutional and cultural structure that perpetually favours themselves. And thus it has always been.
This creates a hierarchy of grievance. A white woman is more held back by the institutions than a white man, but less than a woman in a wheelchair. And so on. The more “intersectionality” of disadvantaged traits you personally have, the more superior your perspective is, and the more your ideas and your person must be protected and advantaged.
My question: are wokeness and intersectionality a dogmatic belief?
Dogma in the broad sense is any belief held unquestioningly and with undefended certainty.
In the pejorative sense, dogma refers to enforced decisions, such as those of aggressive political interests or authorities. More generally, it is applied to some strong belief which its adherents are not willing to discuss rationally. This attitude is named as a dogmatic one, or as dogmatism; and is often used to refer to matters related to religion, but is not limited to theistic attitudes alone and is often used with respect to political or philosophical dogmas.
Formally, the term dogma has been used by some theistic religious groups to describe the body of positions forming the group’s most central, foundational, or essential beliefs, though the term may also be used to refer to the entire set of formal beliefs identified by a theistic or non-theistic religious group. In some cases dogma is distinguished from religious opinion and those things in doctrine considered less significant or uncertain.
So, are wokeness and intersectionality the basis of a dogma of perpetual grievance? Because you as a person have traits that either advantage, or disadvantage you, and these traits are inescapably part of who you are, when we argue for wokeness, are we just promoting an understanding of society where some people must be permanently disadvantaged?
Sir Tainley